Diversity

Diversity Committee
Diversity Initiatives
Diverse Leadership
Women’s Initiatives
Awards & Recognitions
Events

Commitment to Diversity

At McGuireWoods, we define diversity as recognizing and valuing the differences in our workforce, and using those differences to make everyone more efficient and effective. Diversity encompasses age, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, religion and sexual orientation, as well as educational and professional backgrounds.

Long before diversity became a business case, we embraced it. Long before it became an industry goal, we honored it. McGuireWoods saw the value of diversifying its legal team decades ago. As early as 1977, we initiated a joint venture with a minority-owned law firm in Richmond, Virginia. In 2005, the Metropolitan Business League, a nonprofit organization that helps build relationships among Richmond minority businesses, honored us with the Trailblazer Award for staying at the forefront of diverse policies and practices.

International Paper recognizes McGuireWoods’ distinction in the legal profession as a firm with an unparalleled commitment to diversity. In honor of that distinction, it selected us as the inaugural recipient of the Lighthouse Award — an award presented to International Paper’s legal department supplier who, by exemplary leadership, has distinguished itself in the area of diversity.

Collaborative Efforts with Community and Bar Associations

The firm actively supports minority bar associations and encourages our minority lawyers to be active in them as well. Many of our African-American lawyers are active in the National Bar Association, and McGuireWoods was selected to participate in the American Bar Association’s Minority Counsel Demonstration Program.

  • Jacquelyn Stone, an African-American partner in Richmond, served on the Millennium Diversity Initiative Committee of the Virginia State Bar Association, and she led that group’s initiative to establish a law camp for minority high school students.

  • Brian Parker, an African-American partner in Pittsburgh, is an active member of the Homer S. Brown Law Association in Pittsburgh.

  • Halima Horton, an African-American associate in Atlanta, is the membership director and a board member for the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys.

  • Alan Cason, managing partner of our Baltimore office, and African-American, is chairman of the Baltimore City Minority Clerkship Program – a program that identifies exceptional minority students in Maryland law schools for summer employment at large Baltimore law firms. He has also held leadership roles in Baltimore’s Monumental City Bar Association.

  • Several of the firm’s African-American partners have been leaders in the Old Dominion Bar Association in Virginia.

  • Curtis Mack, an African-American partner in Atlanta, was named “Best of the Best,” in the article “Cutting-Edge Labor and Employment Practitioners,” Diversity & The Bar, January/February 2006. In 2003, he was named one of America's leading African-American lawyers by Black Enterprise magazine, and was profiled by the magazine as being among "America's Top Black Lawyers."

Minority Corporate Counsel Association

Nationally, McGuireWoods consistently supports the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. In 2003, we sponsored the acclaimed MCCA forum for general counsel where Roderick Palmore, general counsel of Sara Lee Corporation, was inspired to draft the “Call to Action” recently featured in the magazine Diversity & the Bar.

As a member of the MCCA’s Outside Counsel Strategic Planning Committee, the firm provided significant support to the MCCA’s first annual CLE expo. McGuireWoods has helped raise funds from the DuPont Private Law Firm Network to support the MCCA’s Minority Job Bank. Significantly, our diversity record earned us a participatory role in the ABA’s Minority Counsel Demonstration Program.

Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms

Our active involvement with and support of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms has proven to be a pivotal relationship for continued community outreach. The committee’s mission is to create programming that assists member firms with developing strategies to identify, recruit, hire and retain minority attorneys, and promote them to partnership.

The committee is open to the 50 largest law firms in Chicago, and to branch offices of large firms whose headquarters are in other cities. McGuireWoods has been an active member of the committee since 2003. In conjunction with the committee in 2005, our Chicago office sponsored and hosted a networking reception welcoming incoming minority first-year associates in Chicago.

Outreach, Pro Bono Efforts

Over the decades, the firm has led numerous outreach efforts in minority communities, and has provided hundreds of hours in free legal time on legal aid matters and court-appointed cases for people of all races, as well as organizations, who need and cannot afford legal assistance.

  • Brian Parker, an African-American partner in Pittsburgh, is on the board of directors for the Lemington Residential Corporation in Pittsburgh that runs America’s oldest continuously operated African-American nursing home facility.

  • Bryant Robinson, an African-American partner in Washington, D.C., is on the advisory board of the Greater Washington D.C. Urban League.

  • In partnership with the NAACP, McGuireWoods helped create the African-American Festival Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to organizing an annual festival in Baltimore. We also provide pro bono legal services to the foundation.

  • The firm formed the Slave Museum in Fredericksburg, Va., helped it obtain tax-exempt status, and provided pro bono legal services to it for eight years.

  • McGuireWoods also provides pro bono legal services to First Tee, a nonprofit group whose mission is to give minority youth access to the game of golf.

  • We are active in several programs for underprivileged children including “Tomorrow’s Promise,” a college scholarship program established to assist children of public housing tenants.

  • We helped establish The Carver Promise, a nationally recognized program to help underprivileged, predominately minority children work toward high school graduation and college admission. The firm provides paid employment to minority high school and college students who participate in these and other programs.

Minority Contractors

McGuireWoods has participated in several programs designed to help minority-owned firms gain access to business contacts.

  • One of our minority partners serves on the City of Richmond Sister Commission.

  • One of our minority associates belongs to the Greater Richmond Emerging Leaders Group, a group of business and political leaders.

  • One of our minority partners is a cabinet member for the Chesterfield Business Council.